softalk-pc-1982-12-reduced

The Laws of Life••• • • •• •• • • •• •The Law of Survival. A cell with two or three neighbors will survive forthe next generation .•• • • ••The Law of Death. A cell with more than three neighbors will die ofovercrowding. A tell with fewer than two neighbors will die of isolation .• • • • • • • • • • • • • •The Law of Birth. An empty cell with exactly three neighbors will bealive in the next generation.it tends to destroy patterns that come too close to its " head." It is byno means certain that an eater will devour anything it encounters. Itcan be entertaining to experiment and see how much art eater candigest. Two eaters set almost head to head will form an oscillatingpattern; each will try to destroy the other, but neither can succeed.That brings up something else.Oscillators. An oscillator shifts from shape to shape in a repeatingpattern. Most oscillators have only two phases. In this class isthe blinker, which consists simply of three cells in a row. Other twophaseoscillators include the beacon , which goes on and off; the toad,which puffs itself up; and the clock, which seems to turn. Someoscillators are expandable. You can, for example add elements to thebarber pole and it will oscillate along its entire length.Oscillators are_ not limited to two or even four phases. The bestBelow: a glider gun shoots at an eater.terns cah give birth to new ones. Others can devour intruding cells.Some surprisingly simple patterns metamorphose through thousandsof generations in a bewildering series of shapes.Various ingenious persons have devised classifications of Lifepatterns.Still Lifes. A pattern that does not change is called a still life. Thesimplest, a square of mutually adjacent cells, is called a block. Adiamond shape, with each cell having two neighbors, is called a tub.From there, the shapes get ever more complex, forming patternscalled boats, ships, ponds, beehives, loafs, snakes, and so on. Thenumber of possible still lifes possible is literally infinite.The eater is a special form of still life. A twisty, seven-cell shape,for the IBM Personal Computer December 1982•·:::::::: iiii ::::::::::~~~~~~~~~~~\\\\\\j:: A: : =•· L: :· e ·1:::::::...::::=~::: ::.-: : =1·. ::: ::: :i:::·111_1:: :.:. ·11::::::.... ·•=1·:::...::::::::: ......·:... L.... = :....... = == ..... ...:~~~!!~~~~~~~:~t!~!~~lll~~~)~)lll~!~!!!!:::::~::::::::::::::::::~~:::::::::::::::~. :~::::::::~::::::::~::::::::~~::::.........:.:=~: ~ ~-·~-~3 1